I'm a post-doctoral researcher in statistical genomics at the University of Oxford. Working as part of a large network of scientists, I am trying to understand why some people in Africa just don't seem to get malaria, even if though they live in a highly endemic malarial area. The answer is very complicated, but it is clear that there is a genetic component, so we are trying to identify new genes that confer resistance or susceptibility to this important disease.
I am also interested in using genetics to understand human history. Within us all we have a record of our ancestry, and I work with several people to try to use this ancestry to learn about how history has impacted our genes. This is fun and interesting in its own right, but it's also important from an evolutionary point of view. Uncovering the genetic relationships between populations can help us to better design and interpret genetic epidemiological studies for, in our case, infectious disease.
